Biking with Bill

WINDSURFING IN WORTHINGTON, MN


Monday morning. Back to work. With the rest day behind us, we had a 74 mile bike ride ahead of us to Worthington, MN (“You’ll Come To Love Us” is their slogan). Worthington is famous for WINDSURFING (“Put some speed in your sails”, they say) and holds an annual regatta on its Lake Okabena, which we could see as we came into town early this afternoon. It was no surprise to any of us who had cycled today’s route that WIND would put Worthington on the map. We were in 20-25 mph winds most of the morning. The mainly cross winds rattled the cornfields. It forced us at times to lean into it on the bikes, and it whistled through our helmets and the soybean fields.

We began our ride out of Sioux Falls, SD at 6:30 am and rode casually for 10 miles through beautiful Falls Park along the Big Sioux River on a curving bike path. Keith (IA) mentioned that it was “the prettiest real estate since Mt Rushmore” with woods and playgrounds and acres of trimmed green grass. It was that.

It was quite a transition from the city’s bike path to Rt 140 East and big farm country. We cyclists say that on a bike you not only SEE America, but you can also SMELL it. Today’s passing of pig farms was a good (or bad!) example. Our views were exclusively corn and soybean fields bent in the constant wind. On two occasions we saw wind mills in the fields generating electricity.

We passed through the town of Brandon before crossing the State line into Minnesota. We had our only SAG stop in the lovely town of Laverne, and rode through Magnolia, Adrian and finally into the Dairy Queen in our destination city of Worthington. A good ride day.....maybe a little windy!

The media parade for Rails to Trails has heated up considerably. My appearance yesterday on KSFY (ABC TV affiliate in Sioux Falls) was the first with a film clip on the 5:30 and 10:00 pm local newscasts. It showed the interview and my story of the cross country bike ride dedicated to support Rails to Trails Conservancy. The clip must have been well edited, as I believe it came off quite well–on and off the bike–and wearing my RTC jersey.

Today I was interviewed and photographed (in the jersey) for the July 18 edition of the Worthington Daily Globe newspaper (www.dglobe.com). WIZM radio in La Crosse, WI has asked me to be interviewed “on the air” on Thursday morning for the “ride to work “ crowd at 8:20 am while enroute on the bike. I accepted. I hope it is positive publicity for RTC.

Windsurfing through Minnesota,

Bill
(Photo shows roadside grass blowing in the wind)